The Sustainable Enterprise Conference has created and is implementing a greening program to ensure the conference location and logistics align with its environmental values and aspirations.

Julie Montgomery is the Founder of Sage Principles, a sustainability consulting business in Sonoma County that helps small and medium-sized businesses improve their environmental, and therefore financial, performance.

She joined the conference production team this year as greening director.

“The Sustainable Enterprise Conference is Sonoma County’s premier resource for sustainability, education and networking, and I’m excited to be working to help reduce the amount of energy, water, and waste,” said Montgomery.

The conference will be held Friday, May 11, at Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park. Because venue is such an integral part of any greening program, the Sustainable Enterprise Conference again will use the facilities at Sonoma Mountain Village, a 200-acre, mixed-use, 100 percent solar powered, zero-waste community in Rohnert Park.

This environmentally conscious redevelopment of a former technology campus is internationally recognized as one of the world’s greenest communities.

Bottles and cans from the event are donated to Sonoma State University’s Rotary Club for recycling. Vegetable scraps are collected and donated to Pepper Ranch Poultry in Rohnert Park for chicken feed.

Yokayo Biofuel takes all the used oil generated from the café to create biofuel. In addition, there will be no Styrofoam, plastic ware, or disposable water bottles at the conference.

Conference organizers, speakers, attendees, and exhibitors are asked to contribute to a greener event through online and e-mail communications and are provided information on carpooling, bringing personal beverage cups and recycling plastic name badges.

At this year’s conference, special emphasis has been placed on reducing paper usage. Registration for the conference is entirely online.

Where paper is required, New Leaf Paper, a leader in the paper industry in the development and distribution of environmentally superior printing and office papers, is the 2012 sponsor.

“We’ve looked at every process and stakeholder associated with the conference and worked to ensure that each component is as green as possible,” Montgomery said. “Each year we strive to improve as we all move together toward a more sustainable future. That is the purpose of the conference and the goal of the greening program.”

For more information and to register, visit www.sustainableenterpriseconference.com.